


Sometimes it Works

by Radmeré (Radmere)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst disguised as fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Pining, nerd!derek, semi nerd!stiles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-03
Updated: 2013-04-19
Packaged: 2017-11-23 13:44:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/622820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Radmere/pseuds/Radmer%C3%A9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek is an insecure socially awkward sophomore learning how to be a werewolf while in a high school of humans. Stiles is a less socially awkward, but still insecure, sophomore genius. They fall for each other and much awkwardness and angst ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chemistry

Derek was never very popular. Even though he didn’t want to be the reclusive weird kid at school, it wasn’t really something he could help, or so he told himself. He was a werewolf, and it had unfortunate effects on his social life. He loved being a werewolf, and he loved his family, but sometimes he wished that he could be...not normal, but at least fit in. Like Laura. His sister whom, despite having a similar werewolf heritage, didn’t run into the same problems Derek did. He didn’t like to think about that too hard.

Derek just couldn’t do what she did; he couldn’t be who she was. She was born to be an Alpha. She had been working on her control since before he was born. Laura could join sports teams without blowing the family secret, control her eyes when pictures were being taken, and generally convince the population of Beacon High School that she was a normal teenager. And Derek was stuck sitting in the back of his accelerated chemistry class, pretending that he was totally okay with sitting in the back by himself because _he didn’t care if anyone wanted to sit with him, okay?_

He laid his head on his arms, not really feeling like looking at anyone. Plus, he didn’t want to make accidental awkward eye contact with anyone. Like people needed any more reason to think he was creepy.

Mr. Harris introduced himself to the class briefly and informed them that despite it being their first day of school, they’d still have homework, and for the class to expect this to be the norm. Derek sighed almost inaudibly and sunk into his chair. That was when Stiles Stilinski made his entrance.

It was a minute or two after the bell when Stiles barged in, and even Derek, who was very pointedly not looking at anything or anyone, had to look at him. Mr. Harris looked annoyed, “Thank you for joining us. I’m assuming you’re-”

“Stiles,” he interrupted quickly, “You can call me Stiles. Stilinski... Stiles Stilinski.”

“Take a seat,” Mr. Harris ordered; Stiles’s interruption clearly was not winning him any favors.

Stiles managed to smile largely, but not genuinely, at Mr. Harris. He walked quickly to the back of the room, and slid into the seat next to Derek. Derek's eyes remained firmly on the board in front of him.

They stayed like that, not talking or looking at each other, for about a minute.

Then Stiles started tapping his pencil on the desk. It wasn't rhythmic or for only a couple of seconds either. It was a fast paced continuous tapping that would speed up or slow down at random intervals. Derek tried to ignore it; he tried to pretend that Stiles wasn't there and that the tapping wasn't irritating, but it only took about two minutes for Derek to get exasperated. From there, he tried really hard not to act on the impulse to just take the pencil from Stiles’s hands. But there was the familiar and distressing buildup in his chest, and in order to prevent himself from doing anything drastic, Derek just looked at Stiles. He tried to make it more of a ‘look’ than a ‘glare’, but he was still working on the distinction.

Stiles sensed his gaze really quickly, and looked back at Derek. Stiles tilted his head to the side, silently asking what was up. Derek looked down at Stiles's pencil and back up at Stiles's face expectantly before returning to the board. The tapping stopped a few seconds after that with a quiet ‘oh’ noise.

Derek relaxed, fully prepared to continue his plan to pretend that Stiles wasn't sitting next to him. This plan may have seemed counterintuitive given Derek's very small, practically insignificant, crush on Stiles, but it totally wasn't. Derek figured that if he actually talked to Stiles for an extended period of time, he'd end up bothering Stiles, so it was better to just admire from afar. Not too far, fortunately, because Stiles was sitting right next to him. Derek was very much aware of this, but was not freaking out over it. At all.

At least that was the plan until Stiles talked to him, "Hey. I'm Stiles, but you probably already knew that." Derek assumed he was talking about the incident where Stiles walked in late, and not Derek’s crush on him.

"Derek." He wasn't sure what to say, so he figured less was more.

"Derek...Hale?" Stiles guessed. Derek's eyes widened in surprise. There was no way Stiles actually knew him.

"Yeah," Derek confirmed coolly, trying not to let his reaction to that reveal show.

"I mean, not to be creepy or anything, but I knew you looked familiar. You're totally Laura Hale's brother, right?" The words flew out of Stiles's mouth.

"Yeah," Derek replied, still surprised. Derek wasn't usually associated with his sister, not because they weren't close, but because, superficially at least, they were very different. Most people didn’t connect them with each other; even people who knew both of their last names didn’t always realize they were siblings.

Laura was beautiful and totally unafraid to show it off. She was confident and didn't need to wear glasses or contacts to control her eyes. Derek's wardrobe, on the other hand, usually consisted of loose fitting jeans and a sweatshirt. And he wore black thick rimmed glasses. Not that his control was that bad anymore, but it was better safe than sorry and Derek had...issues with contacts.

This was why it was weird when Stiles blurted out, "I can totally tell."

Derek wasn't sure exactly what to say to that, but he was fairly certain 'really? the only person who ever says that is our mom!' would convey the wrong message, so he stuck with just glancing at Stiles in acknowledgment that Derek actually heard him.

"That's totally weird, isn't it?" Stiles started to backtrack, probably mistaking his look as Derek being unimpressed or creeped out or just generally having negative feelings toward this development.

"No." Derek interrupted whatever Stiles was going to say to reassure Derek that he wasn't creepy. "People just don't usually say that."

That was Derek's first interaction with Stiles Stilinski.

***

Having Stiles as a Chem partner was probably the best thing ever.

Stiles always talked, which Derek enjoyed because silence got suffocating after a while. Plus, he knew what he was doing. Derek knew Stiles was smart, everyone did, but Derek found that whatever expectations he used to have, Stiles totally blew them out of the water. Seriously, Stiles was a genius. Derek was actually getting to know him too.

It was making his crush on Stiles increasingly unignorable, but Derek couldn’t bring himself to mind.

“Hey, Derek?” Stiles blurted out while they were cleaning up their lab. Derek looked up at him from the sink; Sterek seemed very...energetic, more than usual. Whether it was nervous energy or excited energy, Derek couldn’t tell.

“Hmm?” Derek replied as he washed out the test tubes.

“We should totally do that lab project together. You know, the one due next week? Mr. Harris said we could work in groups.” Stiles said in a rush before leaving their lab table to put away their goggles.

Derek’s heart pretty much stopped for a second.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek and Stiles attempt to work on their school project.

The plan was that Derek would drive both of them to Stiles’s house after school. This made Derek’s general demeanor throughout the day much happier. Laura had noticed and made fun of him jokingly about it, and told him that he would freak out his family at the pack meeting later that night. His sudden decision to participate in class was also a little off putting to his teachers, but he couldn’t help himself. He was unreasonably excited about the whole thing 

Derek really didn't think the day could get any better when it suddenly did, and he really must have done something great in a past life because god damn things like this just didn't happen to him.

“Hey!” Stiles called out from a table along the edge of the cafeteria. Derek froze for a second, not sure if Stiles was talking to him until a clarifying “Derek!” came a moment later. 

“Stiles,” Derek replied, turning around and giving a little half smile. 

He was about to continue walking on his way when Stiles waved him over with a little, “Sit with us.” 

Derek tried not to let any surprise and the newfound tingly feeling in his stomach show on his face or anywhere else. He said something like "yeah, sure” in reply and sat down next to Stiles.

"Derek, meet Scott,” Stiles introduced him, "Scott, Derek."

Scott smiled at Derek with a small "hey". Derek tried not to be his socially awkward self when he said it back. 

And the conversation that was going on before he got there, about the new girl Allison, continued as if he hadn't even sat down. This worked really well because apparently Allison could take up entire lunch periods.

"She's just, so, y'know-" The look in Scott's eyes was akin to a puppy's.

"Out of your league?" Stiles offered. 

Scott didn't lose the puppy dog expression, but his eyebrows moved closer to each other and he looked down for a second before retorting, "because you have a such a chance with Lydia?"

Derek was suddenly paying much closer attention.

"Hey, I am perfectly aware of my chances with Lydia." Stiles said, "I'm just trying to save you from disappointment."

***

“So, did you park in the very back of the parking lot on purpose?” Stiles joked.

“Look,” Derek explained, “I’m just a little protective.”

It was parked alone in it’s typical corner of the parking lot. As they walked toward his car, Stiles looked around the parking lot, as if the black camaro couldn’t possibly belong to Derek. 

“Woah. No way.” Derek almost laughed at the way Stiles's eyes widened.

“Are you going to get in, or just stand there?” Derek asked as he unlocked the car and opened the driver's door.

“Seriously, it’s yours.” Stiles was in some sort of shock.

“Seriously, it’s mine.” Derek confirmed. 

“Oh my god you’re so awesome.” 

***  
When they got to Stiles's house, they got caffeinated beverages and went straight to Stiles's room.

“So,” Derek began, getting out his chemistry book, “I thought we could just do the first ten elements in the order of atomic number. It seems easier for-”

“You’re seriously going to do chem when Halo 4 just came out?” Stiles complained, and that made Derek pause for a second and almost say ‘wait, you play halo too?’

“Uh...” was all that came out of Derek’s mouth. He had actually been planning on just working, but found he had no qualms whatsoever on taking a before-we-get-started break.

“C’mon, we’ll do that, eventually, it won’t take long anyway,” Stiles’s unnecessarily pleaded Derek.

“Sure,” Derek said with a smile that Stiles returned with ease.

Playing with Stiles was a lot more fun than playing with Laura. Not because Laura wasn’t good, but because Stiles was...Stiles. He was just so enthusiastic and into it, and Derek couldn’t help but be enthusiastic too. Even when they didn’t do so great. Which happened more frequently than either of them would like to admit because despite both of them having experience and Derek having werewolf reflexes, they were playing on legendary campaign. Stiles had insisted and Derek wasn’t going to say no. 

They had almost finished the level, they were so close, when Stiles let out a chorus of “No, no, no, NO.”

Derek wasn’t faring much better; various swear words were said as they both struggled, and completely forgot about everything else. Everything else including Stiles’s coke, which splashed onto Derek when Stiles jolted as he inevitably died.

Derek jerked back in surprise, and Stiles swore and apologized. 

Derek stood up, evaluating the situation. The front of his shirt was pretty much soaked, but not much had gotten on his pants. Derek looked down distastefully at himself because he suddenly felt really sticky.

“I’m so sorry,” Stiles apologized again, “I’ll get you another shirt.”

“It’s fine,” Derek said, pulling his shirt over his head. He had wanted to get out of it as soon as possible, so he didn’t really register that he was half naked in Stiles’s room until it was too late. He felt himself get embarrassed and hot, so he crossed his arms over his chest.

It didn’t help that when he turned around to get a shirt, Stiles was staring at him. There was a second of silence before Stiles raised his eyes to meet Derek’s and Derek coughed. 

“Uhm,” Stiles started before coughing and saying, “A shirt. It, uh, might be a little small.”

Derek caught the shirt Stiles threw at him and smiled sheepishly. “Thanks.”

It was a quiet for another moment as Derek put the shirt on before Stiles blurted out, “You’re ripped.” 

It was one of the side effects of being a werewolf. One of the only ones Derek was discovering he didn’t mind. 

“I, ah, I work out,” Derek explained. It wasn’t technically a lie. He turned into a werewolf and sometimes trained with his sister, so he kind of worked out.

“Oh, I believe you.” Derek’s and Stiles’s eyes met again, and suddenly they were laughing. Derek wasn’t exactly sure why, but once he started, he couldn’t stop.

It was only sometime later when Derek realized that it was dark outside, they had been playing halo for much longer than he’d originally thought, and his parents were having a pack meeting tonight. Normally, the once a week pack meetings were no problem for Derek. He loved his pack. They were his family and they were practically part of him. 

But right now they were a really big inconvenience. “I have to go.”

“What?” Stiles looked at him weirdly, “It’s only like 7:00.”

Derek’s eyes widened. It was even later than Derek thought. “I have a family thing tonight, sorry.”

Stiles’s face fell. “Oh, uh, okay.” 

Derek felt even worse as his and Stiles’s eyes met again. Derek really did have to go though, he didn’t want his parents to be too mad with him, or worse, come looking for him. Wolves were protective of pack. As Derek walked out the door, he waved to Sheriff Stilinski, and thanked Stiles for inviting him over.

“No problem, dude, but we do have to do that project.” Stiles still looked a little downcast, and he laughed at their situation humorlessly.

Derek swore. “Yeah, we still have to do that.” 

“I’ll just text you,” Stiles said before realizing, “I don’t have your number.” Stiles pulled out his phone and told Derek make a contact, and he’d text him.

Derek froze for a second because he was getting Stiles’s number. Or rather, giving Stiles his number. When he gave Stiles back his phone, he turned back to his car and called behind him, “See you later.”

“Yeah,” came a response from behind him, “See you later.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this was really really late. Life has been kicking my ass lately. :(

The first time Stiles texted Derek, it was about chemistry, to the surprise of absolutely no one. Derek had wanted to text him first, but always ended up deleting anything he managed to type out. 

Luckily, it didn’t end up mattering because Stiles always took the initiative, and Derek was pretty much cool with everything after that. Especially cool when ‘hey want to do chem together’ (which was always kind of embarrassing for Derek anyways because Stiles did everything whenever they actually ended up doing their homework) turned into ‘hey want to come over and hang out after school’ or even ‘omfg I think my math teacher’s on crack’. 

So basically, Derek and Stiles were now on a text multiple times a day basis, and Derek still had absolutely no idea how it happened. Well, he knew exactly how it started; what Derek wasn’t sure of it was how it progressed to ‘i think we were just invited to a party’. 

“A party?” Derek asked at lunch that day. 

“Yeah. I know right? Apparently Allison and Scott are, like, close or whatever.” Stiles sounded surprised about it, but not unpleasantly. “I don’t get it.” 

Scott looked at Stiles smugly, had been for the entire period, and even before school. Derek is pretty sure that if one could look smug over text, Scott would have done that too. Stiles had been obviously ignoring Scott’s pleased looks, but Derek could tell that Stiles was happy for him, even if he would never admit it. 

“I think it’s cool,” Derek said; Scott smiled at him. “But why are we invited?” Derek motioned to himself and to Stiles.

“Well, it’s Allison’s cousin’s party; when she told Kate I was going with her, she said to tell her to tell me that I should invite Derek too, and Allison said that meant that Stiles was invited too because I guess if you invite two, you invite three or something like that.” 

Derek blinked. “Okay.” Derek wasn’t entirely sure on everything, or anything really, that Scott had just said, so he figured he’d just play along.

“Seriously?” Was all Stiles said, and he seemed a little...disappointed? He had known Scott since forever, so Stiles was better at speaking his language, even when he got really excited. Which, lately, had been whenever Allison was mentioned. Whatever Scott said that made Stiles upset, Derek didn’t catch it. Derek frowned a little.

“Does this mean I get to actually meet Allison?” Derek asked jokingly; it felt weird hearing her talked about every day and literally having no idea who she was or what she even looked like.

“Yes.” Scott replied, a weird look coming over his face. It was a mix between dreamy and awe; in other words, it was Scott’s Allison face. “She’s great. You’ll love her.”

“Hey,” Derek said to Scott with a smile, he was happy for his friend, “I’m happy for you.”

Scott’s eyes fell down to Derek and smiled back, “Thanks.”

Stiles coughed pointedly. 

“So I guess that means you’re driving Allison to the party,” Stiles said with a dramatic sigh.

“Yeah, sorry,” Scott looked didn’t look too apologetic though, “You should really get a car, you know?” 

“I am getting a car.” Stiles muttered stubbornly and a bit defensively, “And it’s going to be Jeep.”

“Sure.”

“I’m serious. It’s going to happen.” Stiles had been talking about this for a while now. Scott didn’t seem to buy it, but Stiles had his heart set on it, so Derek figured it was probably going to happen. 

“I can drive you,” Derek blurted out, and almost immediately regretted it. Was that coming on too strong? Was he being too obvious? Derek had a brief moment of panic where he was sure Stiles knew everything about his crush on him.

Stiles smiled gratefully though, and Derek suddenly didn’t regret anything.

“Thanks.” He turned to Scott with a smug look on his face, “Derek has a cooler car than you anyways.”

***

Laura was very openly laughing at him from her place on the chair in the corner of his room. Derek glared at her and continued to sift through his wardrobe, a bit too harshly; she laughed harder.

Catching his embarrassed look after that, she apologized, “Sorry! It’s just- I’ve never seen you so...”

“Insane?” he guessed; he’d come to the conclusion himself a half hour ago.

“Excited,” She corrected semi-sternly, “Whose party is it anyways?”

“Scott’s... girlfriend’s... cousin’s party.” Laura had found out about Derek hanging out with Scott and Stiles through her own devices, and had been delighted.

Laura looked unimpressed. “Does Scott’s girlfriend’s cousin have a name?”

“Uh, yeah.. Kate?” He was pretty sure that’s what Scott called her.

“Kate...” Laura trailed off, clearly looking for a last name. There was something weirdly Alpha-ish in her voice that put Derek on edge. He was absolutely fine with submitting to her, but he still wasn’t used to her ability to control him outside of wolf things. More recently, Derek was starting to seriously dislike when his werewolf-side and his human-side ended up intertwining; he had human friends and did human things and just generally had a vested interest in not being a total freak.

“I don’t know!” Derek huffed, frustrated with being interrogated and actually not being able to find anything to wear. 

Laura frowned, “Hey, sorry, I’m just a little protective of my little brother, okay?” She ruffled his hair in a gesture that was probably more fueled by her wolf instincts than her human ones. Derek automatically tilted his head and relaxed, turning back to his task.

“Why don’t I have anything to wear?” Derek looked hopelessly at the pile of clothes that had somehow ended up spewn across his bed and floor.

“Because you don’t like to wear clothes that show off your...anything...?” Laura offered.

“But why?”

“Stop whining,” Laura muttered as she looking through the pile. “You really don’t have anything to wear, do you?” 

“Maybe I should just not go.” 

A pair of jeans and one of his tighter shirts was thrown onto his face.  
***  
He arrived at Stiles’s house at exactly the time Stiles had told Derek to pick him up at, seven, despite the fact that he somehow had finished getting ready at six thirty. As soon as he pulled into the driveway, Stiles was practically running outside his front door and jumping into the passenger seat.

“Hi!” Stiles said looking at him briefly once before widening his eyes and looking again.

“Hey.” Derek greeted as he pulled out of the driveway, smiling sheepishly at him, “Do you know where Kate lives?”


End file.
